Fare-collecting apparatus.



C. H. WOODS. PARE COLLECTING APPARATUS. APPLIUATION FILED JULY zo, 1912.

v 1,062,134. Patented May 20, 1913.

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C. H. WOODS. FARE COLLECTING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED JULY 20, 1912.

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ATTORNEY.

COLUMBIA PLANoGR/PH C0., wAsilNuToN. D. C'.

CHARLES H. WOODS, 0F DECATUR, ILLINOIS.

FAIRIE-C0LllIiIEiClING- APPARATUS.

Speccation of Letters Patent.

Application led July 20, 1912.

Patented May 20, 1913.

serial No. 710,674.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. WOODS, citizen of the United States,residing at Decatur, in the county of Macon and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Fare-CollectingApparatus, of which the following is a speciicat-ion.

The invention relates to fare collecting apparatus primarily designedfor use upon pay-within and pay-as-you-enter cars; although the same canalso be employed at any other places where coins or tickets are to becollected.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a durable and compactapparatus of this character utilizing separate tills or 4fare boxeswhereby separate ones can be used by diiferent persons having charge ofthe apparatus and the method of checking the conductors or otherattendants and of auditing the receipts, being, as a result, greatlysimplified.

A further object is to provide tills or fare boxes which can beseparately removed and which will automatically close and lock Whilebeing withdrawn from their housing.

Vit-h the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invent-ion resides in the combination andarrangement of parts and inthe details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that changes in the preciseembodiment of the invention herein disclosed can be made within thescope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen shown.

In said drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus andshowing the means employed for mounting it upon a supporting structure.Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus, the support-ing bracket beingremoved. Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the apparatus with the bottomclosure removed to show the lower ends of the respective tills or fareboxes. Fig. l is a section on line X-X Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a View of themain housing of the apparatus with t-he near side cut-away and the tillsor fare boxes removed. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the fixed top member ofthe housing. Fig. 7 is a transverse section through the apparatus, oneofthe tills being shown in section and open to receive fares and anothertill being shown in elevation and partly removed, the Afare receiverbeing removed from the top of the housing and the bottom closure of saidhousing being re-` moved. Fig. 8 is a plan view of a portion of therevoluble top member of the apparatus, the positions of the shutterbeing indicated by dotted lines. Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view of thestructure shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 10 is a view partly in section andpartly in elevation through a portion of the structure shown in Fig. 9and showing the means employed for mounting the revoluble top upon thefixed top. Fig. 11 is an elevation of one of the conveying tubes and thefingers connected thereto.

Referring to the figuresl by characters of reference 1 designates themain housing or casing preferably rectangular although it is to beunderstood that the same may be of any other desired contour. The upperend of this housing is closed by a plate 2 which, in the presentinstance, has a large central circular opening 3 and four smalleropenings f1 equidistant from the opening 3 and interposed between saidopening and the cornersk of the plate 2. A frame 5 made up of crossedmembers is located in the housing 1 and serves to divide it into fourseparate compartments 6, each of which is adapted to receive a till orfare box 7,` the top of which is formed with an opening 8. A closure 9is arranged within the till and is hingedly connected thereto close tothe top as shown at 10 and has a spring 11 whereby the closure is heldnormally shut. This closure is provided with a spring lock 14. adaptedto engage a keeper 15 located in the till. Thus it will be seen that thetill is normally closed and, if the closure is in open position, thespring 11 tends to shift it back to closed position so as to cause thelock 14 to automatically engage the keeper 15. The bottom of the till orfare box 7 is provided with a bail-like handle 16y adapted to swingthereagainst and when the till or farebox is in its normal or innermostposition within the housing 1, it is adapted to be retained within thehousing by means of a removable closure 17 such as shown in Fig. .5.

The large central opening 3 in the plate 2 is adapted to receive acircular boss or extension 18 through which extends a'shaft 19preferably provided with one Or more flattened faces and which isadapted to r0- tate within the boss. A washer 2O is mounted upon thelower end portion of the shaft 19-and is adapted to rotate therewith,said washer being held in position preferably by means of a pin 21extending transversely through the shaft. An arm 22 extends radiallyfrom the washer and is connected, by means of a coiled spring 23, to apin 24 extending from the boss 18.

The boss 18 extends downwardly from the lower face of a revoluble topplate 25 having a marginal flange 26 which bears downwardly on the upperend of the housing 1-. A spring pressed holding pin 27 is slidablymounted inthe plate 25 and is adapted to be seated in any one of aseries of openings 28 formed in the fixed plate 2. A sl'ot 28 extendsinto the boss and the shaft 19 extends across this slot and upwardlythrough the plate 25, the upper end of the shaft being preferablyprovided with a crank arm 29 whereby the shaft can be rotated readily.Arranged within the slot 28 and secured to the shaft- 19 is the arm 30of a shutter 31, said shutter and its `arm beingpreferably formed of athin sheet of metal and the shutter being substantially circular andbeing normally held by spring 23 in position under an inlet opening 32which is formed in the plat-e 25 and is surrounded by an upstandingflange 33 the surfaces of which converge downwardly toward the openingas `shown particularly in Fig. 7.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent-that the revolubletop plate 25 can be adjusted angularly abo-ut the central axis of theboss 18 so as to bring the opening 32 above any one of the openings 4and, as each of these openings 4 is located above one of thecompartments G, it will thus be seen that opening 432 can be broughtinto position above any one of the compartments 6 and any one o-f thetills located in the compartments. Furthermore the spring pressed pin27, by projecting into the adjacent opening 28 lwill hold the revolubleplate 25 against movement after it has been properly adjusted. As theshutter 31 is connected to the top plate 25 it will be adjusted therewith andwill maintain the opening 32 normally'closed. lVhen, however, itis desired to shift the shutter away from the opening, it is `merelyAnecessary to rotate the shaft 19 by means of crank 29 and thus causearm 22 to pull on the spring 23. At'the same time the shutter will beshifted away from under the opening 32, as indicated by dotted lines at'a in Fig. 8. Secured within each of the openings 4 and projectingupwardly therefrom so as to lie close to the plane of movement of theshutter 31 are conveying tubes 34, these tubes extending downwardly intothe upper portions of the compartments 6 and having yokes 35 embracingand secured to the lower ends thereof and provided with depending curvedfingers 36.

The revoluble tcp plate 25 has an arcuate periphery extending throughapproximately 27() degrees and merging into a rectangular extension 37in which the opening 32 is formed. The fare receiver is adapted to besecured upon this angular extension and is made up of walls includingtransparent portions 33 preferably of glass, said walls supporting atrough-like top member 39 in which an angular opening 40 is formed. Adeflector 41 is suspended below the opening 40 and constitutes a guardto prevent the removal of coins or tickets upwardly through the opening40. This deflector also prevents the contents o-f the receiver fromescaping through the opening 40 should the receiver be inverted.

The apparatus may be connected to rails 42 or any other supportingstructure by means of angular brackets 43 or the like riveted orotherwise secured to the housing as shown in Fig. 1. If the farecollecting apparatus is to be used upon a car to be placed in charge offour different conductors successively, a structure such as has been'illustrated and which utilizes four tills or farel boxes is employed.The closures 9 of the tills are unlocked and said tills are insertedlongitudinally into the compartments 6 so that the unlocked closureswill be brought against the depending fingers 36 and pushed downwardlyto open position where they will be held back from under the conveyingtubes 34. The tills are then secured within the housing by means of thebottom colsure 17. One of these tills is assigned to each conductor and,after the receiver' has been mounted on the top plate 25, the pin 27 islifted out of engagement with the fixed plate 2 and the plate 25 isadjusted angularly until the opening 32 is brought into position abovethe till to be used. During this adjustment the shutter 31 is o-f courseheld in closed position by means of the spring 23. lVhen a fare isdeposited in the receiver it will gravitate to the opening 32 and ontothe shutter 31 and when the shaft 19 is rotated by means of the crankarm 29, the shutter will be swung from under the opening 32 and thedeposited fare will thus be caused to gravit-ate through the conveyingtube Vthereunder and into the till to which said tube leads. As soon asthe crank arm 29 is released, the spring 23 returns the shutter to itsnormal or closed position. Then the first conductor completes his work,he can open the bottom of the housing 1 and pull downwardly on the tillin which the fares have been collected. As the till is withdrawn theclosure 9 is swung to closed position by its spring 11 unt-il lock 14autountil all of the tills have been illed. The

successive positions assumed by the revoluble plate 9.5 with referenceto the openings 4 have been indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2.

It will be apparent that by providing a fare collecting apparatusutilizing a plurality of tills or fare boxes adapted to be usedsuccessively so that the several conductors or attendants can haveindividual boxes, an etlicient check can be kept upon the conductors andthe receipts can be more easily audited than otherwise.

While as hereinbefore stated, the device is primarily designed for useupon street cars,

it will be obvious that the same can be used wherever it is desired tocollect fares, admission tickets and the like.

While the apparatus has been shown provided With four compartments and atill for each compartment, it is to be understood that the number ofcompartments and tills used can be increased or diminished as desired.

Vhat is claimed is 1. The combination with a main housing, of aplurality of tills within the housing, each till having a closure at itsupper end, fixed fare conveying members projecting and discharging intothe respective tills and constituting means for holding the tillclosures open and extended downwardly into the tills, said tills beingremovable downwardly Jfrom the housing to withdraw from the conveyingmeans therein, means for automatically shutting the closures when thetills are removed, and means for automatically locking the closures whenshut.

2. The combination with a main housing, ot a plurality of tills withinthe housing, each till having a closure at its upper end, fixed fareconveying members projecting and discharging into the respective tillsand constituting means for holding; the till closures open and extendeddownwardly into the tills, said tills being removable downwardly fromthe housing to withdraw them from the conveying means therein, means forautomatically shutting the closures when the tills are removed, meansfor automatically locking the closures when shut, and a receiveradjustable angularly on the housing for directing fares into any one ofthe conveying members.

3. The combination with a housing, and conveyers ixedly mounted therein,of tills mounted in the housing for receiving in the upper ends thereofthe respective conveyers, fingers extending from the conveyers, closuresupon the tills and adapted to be held open by the fingers, saidclosures, when open, projecting downwardly into the tills, a top platemounted for rotation on the housing and having an aperture adapted toreg- `ister with any one of the conveyers, a receiver movable with thetop plate for direct ing fares into the aperture, and coperating meansupon the top plate and the housing f for holding said'plate in adjustedposition.

4. The combination with a housing having separate compartments thereinand a till removably mounted' in each compartment, of a fixed top platehaving a central opening, there being additional openings in said plateand above the respective compartments, a revoluble top plate, a bossthereon mounted for rotation within the central opening,

there being an aperture in the top plate, a

shutter normally closing the aperture, means mounted within the boss forshifting the shutter out of normal position, means for automaticallyreturning the shutter to normal position.

5. The combinationwith a housing having separate compartments thereinand a till removably mounted in each compartment, of a plate having acentral opening, there being additional openings in said plate and abovethe respective compartments, a revoluble plate, a boss on the revolubleplate and mounted for rotation in said central opening, there being anaperture in the rev Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve centseach, by addressing` the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C.

